Labour warned over C-charge for Manchester

A day ahead of the expected green light for Greater Manchester's congestion charge, a Labour MP yesterday warned that it would undermine the party's support in the area.

Transport minister Rosie Winterton is expected to announce government backing for a traffic improvement bid put forward by 10 Greater Manchester councils, including a charging scheme requiring drivers to pay up to £5 to enter the city centre at busy times. The package will also include millions of pounds in government support for public transport to enhance bus and tram services.

Manchester Blackley's Labour MP, Graham Stringer, predicted a backlash at the polls from motorists in marginal seats on the fringes of the conurbation. He told BBC1's Politics Show: "To have a Labour government, you have to have an alliance not only of core Labour voters but of people who before 1997 in constituencies like Bury North and Bolton West didn't vote Labour. The congestion tax is another pressure on that coalition. It is another wedge that will break that coalition up and make it much more difficult to deliver a Labour government."

The Tory leader of Trafford council, Susan Williams, who hopes to unseat the transport secretary, Ruth Kelly, from marginal Bolton West in the next general election, said: "To bring in the congestion charge at a time when the roads of Greater Manchester and the country have been blockaded by truck drivers and motorcyclists protesting about taxes on the motorist seems to be an act of political suicide."

But Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester city council, said: "If the politicians of Greater Manchester have the strength and confidence to do what is clearly in the long-term interests of this conurbation and all its people, we won't be punished at the ballot box, we will be rewarded for that strength of purpose."

Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd said that congestion on the roads was causing health and environmental problems.